A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
For more on the Supreme Court's new term, we called up Amy Howe. She's the cofounder of SCOTUSblog. So, Amy, the climate case that we just heard about, what's the most fascinating part of this case to you?
AMY HOWE: The most fascinating part to me is something that Carrie flagged towards the end of her story, which is the idea that the energy companies' arguments rest on what they call the structure of the Constitution and federal law. But there's nothing in either of those that says that this kind of lawsuit can't go forward. And, you know, this is the kind of case in which we think of the court's conservative majority - although Justice Samuel Alito will be recused from this because he owns stock in energy companies. But a couple of the court's conservative justices, like Neil Gorsuch and Clarence Thomas, may be reluctant to rule for the energy companies if they can't point their legal arguments to a specific text in the Constitution or federal law. And as Jonathan Adler said in Carrie's story, Congress could put a stop to this, but it hasn't.
MARTÍNEZ: All right. Now, the last term, Amy - correct me if I'm wrong - it felt very Trump-driven. Tariffs, birthright citizenship. What about this one, at least the start?
HOWE: So far, it's not quite as Trump-driven. I think last term was really an outlier. It was driven in no small part by a lot of the executive orders that he signed almost immediately after taking office on January 20, 2025. And those bubbled up to the Supreme Court pretty quickly, issues like tariffs and birthright citizenship. And they're just - some of those executive orders have worked their way through the system or are continuing to work their way through the system.
I should say that it could change pretty quickly. You know, just in the last couple of weeks, the Supreme Court has added two really major immigration cases. Immigration is obviously a major of the Trump agenda. And policies that came to the Supreme Court on the emergency docket, you know, could be back at the Supreme Court again on the merits. Issues like the ban on transgender members of the military is something that could arrive at the court, and the court could hear oral arguments this term.
MARTÍNEZ: Yeah, I was going to ask you how long do you think that was (laughter) going to last, but you answered it right there. All right, so let's get to some of the other cases. One involves the question of whether state or local governments can ban AR-15s and other semiautomatic rifles. What are the arguments there?
HOWE: So this is a really interesting case. You know, the argument in no small part by the gun owners, who live in Connecticut and Cook County, Illinois, and want to have AR-15s, say, this is the second most popular gun in the United States, second only to handguns. The state and Cook County and the gun restriction supporters say, yes, but they've also been used in mass shootings.
And the court's Second Amendment jurisprudence is still very new. If we had, like, another two or three minutes, I could basically summarize it. But the court has said that to determine whether restrictions on gun rights like this are constitutional, you have to look at whether there's a history and tradition of similar gun restrictions in early American and English history. And what the court said - the court is really fleshing this test out still. And what the court says in this case is going to have a big impact not just for AR-15s, but for other gun rights restrictions going forward.
MARTÍNEZ: Now, later this year, after the midterms, the justices are expected to hear arguments on a Republican-led effort to revive voter restrictions in Arizona. They're trying to toughen proof of citizenship requirements and also get rid of suspected noncitizens from the voter rolls. What's the central question in this one?
HOWE: Yeah, so there are two central questions in this one. The first is whether or not Arizona can require proof of citizenship to register using the voter registration form that Arizona uses. And this is a question that came to the Supreme Court on the emergency docket already. And the Supreme Court allowed Arizona to continue using this kind of form while the litigation continues. So that is a sign that, you know, there are at least five justices who are predisposed to allow Arizona to use it.
And then the second is whether or not Arizona, a policy that would remove noncitizens from the voter rolls violates a federal voting law that creates what's called a quiet period - that in 90 days before an election, a federal election, states can't do mass purges of voters, the idea that there's just not enough time for people to figure out that they've been taken off the list and then register again. And the - Arizona's argument is that these people shouldn't be voters in the first place because they're not eligible to vote. And so that is, you know, these are both case - these are both issues that aren't going to affect, obviously, the midterm elections, but could have a big impact not only in Arizona, but in other states in the 2028 elections.
MARTÍNEZ: One more thing really quick, Amy. President Trump told Time Magazine he regretted nominating justices Gorsuch, Kavanaugh and Barrett because they vote against him too often. I don't think I should have to ask this question, but here it goes. Do comments like that have any impact on the justices?
HOWE: I'm not sure that they have much of an impact on the justices themselves. I think they would at least tell us that they decide the cases based on how they think the law dictates they should come out. But, you know, they're certainly not helpful in this climate of overheated rhetoric about the Supreme Court and federal judges in particular.
MARTÍNEZ: Amy Howe is the cofounder of SCOTUSblog. Amy, thanks.
HOWE: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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